NASA: No doomsday in 2012

NASA: No doomsday in 2012

The Iberian Peninsula at night, as seen from the International Space Station.

NASA has posted a FAQ on its website that explains why the world won’t end in 2012.

Dec. 21, 2012 is the end of a long cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar, and NASA officials are attempting to shut down pseudo-scientists who claim that Earth will be destroyed that day.

“Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012,” NASA scientists wrote in the FAQ. “Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.”

The FAQ debunks the most widely-circulated theories about what will destroy Earth on Dec. 21, 2012, including colliding with a rogue planet named Nibiru, Planet X or Eris; giant solar storms; a reversal of Earth’s rotation; freaky planetary alignment; and the classic ending of being hit by a giant asteroid.

For example, the idea that planets might line up with each other in a way that will destroy Earth is not based in science, Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Space.com. There are no planetary alignments scheduled for that day, he said, "and if there were, it wouldn't cause any problems.”

As for the fear that the end may come via asteroid impact, "there are no known near-Earth objects in 2012 that present a credible risk to Earth," Yeomans said. "None, zero, zip, nada."